


Easy There

by Pride_of_Six



Category: Magic: The Gathering (Card Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-09 00:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20844881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pride_of_Six/pseuds/Pride_of_Six
Summary: “I like your hair.” He gives Tomik a grin and runs a hand through his frizzled black hair, streaked with silver-white. Tomik gives him a shy smile that encourages Ral to stick around.





	Easy There

The night was young, and Ral was already feeling a pretty good buzz. He hadn’t had high expectations when he got invited to a party hosted by the _law students_, but as it turned out, they _really_ knew how to party within the accepted limits of the law. He wouldn’t admit it, but it was even comparable to one of their engineering faculty bashes. There was alcohol, games, cool people, and pretty much everything Ral could need for a great night.

“Hey, Ral, do a shot with me!” Kaya, one of the women he’d met tonight, called for him. Who was he not to oblige?

“Of course,” they clinked their glasses together and then he was swallowing down the electric taste of something that burned. “Jesus, Kaya, what the hell was that?” he coughed, but she was already moving onto her next victim with the same _powerful_ spirit she’d just tricked him into drinking.

She may have shouted something back in response about how he consented to drink it, but Ral’s attention had already shifted to the next thing as well. While people were talking and laughing and drinking all around him, he spotted one of _them_: a wallflower. There was always at least one at every gathering, and Ral couldn’t help but make it his mission in life to get them out of their corners whenever he saw one.

“Cool party, right?” Ral opened with, “You had Kaya try and poison you yet?”

The wallflower was a handsome young man with brown hair. He wore mostly white, which was a bold choice at a party where people were spilling drinks left, right and centre, but Ral admired how the clothes fit his body.

While he was doing some appraising of his own, he realised the other man was giving him a once-over as well. Ral couldn’t help feeling uneasy under his scrutinous gaze and shifted from foot to foot nervously.

“I can’t imagine Kaya poisoning anyone,” he replies eventually. “If someone incurred Kaya’s wrath, she’d be far more straightforward.”

“You know her well, then?” the other man just hums at that, like it isn’t necessary for him to respond. “What do they call you, then?”

“Tomik,” the man—Tomik—replies.

He doesn’t reach for Ral’s name so he offers it freely, “I’m Ral.” He can’t be sure if it’s the alcohol altering his judgment, but when Tomik offers him a polite smile, all he can think about it how _kissable_ the other man seems. Probably a sign that he should abandon the attempted conversation before he makes a fool of himself, but he’s never been one for sensible decisions. “Ral Zarek, that is. I like your—” _face_, he wants to say, “necklace.” Ral admires the small pendant shaped like a winged creature hanging around his neck. 

At its mention, Tomik starts fiddling with it. “Thank you.”

The silence stretches between them for a moment and Ral starts to get the feeling he might not be wanted here. This might just be a handsome, quiet man that doesn’t mind standing off to the side at a party. Maybe Ral is interrupting his preferred solitude.

“I like your hair.” It gets said so quickly and suddenly in the stretch of silence that Ral has to double-take to process it. He gives Tomik a grin and runs a hand through his frizzled black hair, streaked with silver-white. Tomik gives him a shy smile that encourages Ral to stick around.

“You not drinking?”

“No,” Tomik admits, “I came with my friend Teysa, but she vanished the moment we came in the door. I don’t fancy getting drunk alone.”

“You aren’t alone now,” Ral points out, “but I think with whatever concoction I just had of Kaya’s, I’ll slow down a bit, anyway.”

“Probably a good idea. Kaya downs some pretty strong spirits. Do you wanna sit for a bit?”

Ral isn’t feeling the alcohol too much, Tomik is probably just being cautious, but it feels like sitting somewhere with Tomik will mean a more intimate level of conversation which Ral very much wants. “Yes, please.”

They end up leaving the main cluster of rooms people are congregating in to sit in a quieter section of the house with just a few other people about.

“So,” Ral sits down heavily on a two-seater couch, leaving space for Tomik beside him, “tell me about yourself, Tomik.”

Tomik takes the vacant spot and Ral appreciates how physically close they are. “I don’t know what there is to tell,” he hazards, “I’m studying to be a property lawyer, so most people wouldn’t want to hear about that—”

“Nonsense,” Ral interrupts, “talk about anything you want to talk about. Don’t worry about only saying what you think I want to hear.” He reclines deeper in the couch and twists slightly so he can more easily view Tomik while he talks.

“Okay,” he looks unsure, like maybe he thinks Ral is making fun of him, “but please stop me if I start rambling.”

Ral nods his assent, “I promise. Please, tell me all about property law. And don’t be stingy on the details, either.”

“Okay,” Tomik seems surer now. It’s like a switch has been flipped as he sits forward and starts to get going. “So, here’s the thing about easements…”

It turns out once Tomik finds the most boring things to Ral to be the most interesting things in the world as he expounds more and more on things which Ral won’t pretend to understand. Even though he isn’t interested in Tomik’s subject matter, the other man’s unguarded excitement as he talks is contagious and pretty soon Ral is contributing in what little ways he can, just to see the way Tomik’s eyes light up as he engages him in the conversation.

At one point in their conversation, Ral makes a joke and Tomik _laughs_. If Tomik was handsome at the worst of times, when he was laughing, he was absolutely _breathtaking_.

“Gosh, Ral, you let me talk for far too long,” Tomik says eventually, cutting himself off with another laugh that makes Ral’s heartbeat quicken. “You’re too patient. C’mon, now it’s your turn. Tell me about yourself.”

“C’mon, it was just getting interesting.” Tomik scoffs at him. “Fine, fine, but don’t think you’re getting out of telling me all there is to know about easements,” he gives the other man a wink and appreciates the way it makes Tomik shift. “I’m an engineering student, but that’s not really anything I want to talk about. My lecturer Niv is… quite something.”

“Any hobbies?”

“I’m kind of into storm-chasing, but it’s been a while since there’s been a good one around here.”

“Oh, storm-chasing, wow. Sounds dangerous,” Tomik says, “but I can see why it could be exciting, too.”

“Trust me, there’s nothing like it. Maybe in the wet season, if there’s a big one, I could show you. It really gets your blood pumping.”

Tomik hums at that. Ral isn’t sure if his hints that he’d like to make talking to the other man a regular occurrence have been obvious enough in their conversation or if he should just be outright and ask the man on a date or something. “I could be persuaded.”

“And what would I have to do to persuade a sophisticated, handsome man like you?” he’s been slowly reducing the distance between them on the couch, and he articulates the question by bumping their legs together and letting the touch linger.

“Well, it isn’t flattery, but that certainly doesn’t hurt your case,” Tomik teases. Then he sees something behind Ral and his tone changes, “How about you give me your number and we’ll talk it through some other time.”

Ral turns and the person that seems to have captured Tomik’s attention is a young woman. “Is that the person you came here with?” Ral asks while holding a hand out for Tomik’s phone to plug his number into.

“Yeah, that’s Teysa,” Tomik hands him his phone and Ral quickly types in his name and number into the contacts, giving himself a little lightning bolt which he hopes gives Tomik a laugh when he checks it later. “Look, I probably have to get going now. I’ll text you if you want to talk more about storm-chasing. I owe you for listening to me talk about easements for however long I went on for.”

“It’s no trouble at all, Tomik,” they both stand and Ral walks him over to his friend. “I look forward to seeing you again.”

Ral knows his own smirk has an effect on people, but Tomik’s smile surely puts his to shame because his heart has an outburst every time. “Me, too.”

===

Two months later 

===

On their first ‘official’ date, Ral takes Tomik storm-chasing with him and they share an electric kiss while the rain pours around them and lightning strikes in the distance. They’re both shaking from the cold and excitement of it all, and even if they both get sick, Ral can’t imagine having it any other way.

They break the kiss and Ral blinks water out of his eyes to see Tomik in all of his beauty.

Tomik starts when a loud clap of thunder echoes around them and Ral pulls him close against his chest as he lets the electricity in the air set his every hair on end.

“Ral?”

“Yeah?”

Tomik blinks up at him adorably and Ral kisses him deeply.

“What is it?”

Tomik swallows, looking into the distance before continuing. “So, here’s the thing about easements…”

Ral shoves him gently before reeling him back in for another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to write something for these guys in the actual Magic: the Gathering universe but it is so dense I'd be worried that I was missing so, so many things.
> 
> That, and I'd be more tempted to throw in card puns than ever before.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
